Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-11-05
TEE REV. DIR. 7ALMAGE.
rIIE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject: Uncccupied Fields"

[After the church was full of people, and
al the adjoining rooms packed, as many
, people went away from the doors as got in.
TEXT. Lest should build Upon dnother
mans foundation. Romans XIV, 90
| Stirring REPORTS COME from all parts Of
america showing what a great work tie
lnurehes OF Tod are doing, and | congratu.
iate them and their pastors. Misapprehen-
slons have been going the rounds of some Of
the religious pre-. s depreciating the gener-
oslty Of this church S7Sl, ,3I6 "a have been
paid cash down in this church for religious
uses and Christian work during the nineteen
Years Of my ministry here. This church was
quilt by al denominations Of Christians and
by people from ell lands, and hence we have
cen raising money for many objects outside
our denomination, and that has sometimes
lnterlered with our contributions to the
Boards Of our denomination Subscription
books for all good objects, Christian, humani-
tartan, collegiate and missionary have been
mere as common as the daylight, and no
church in Christendom has been moro con-
tlnuotis lii its benevoences than this. Be-
side that we have received during tine year
I2o souls on profession of faith in Christ. a
Iact that mention, not in boasting, but to
snow SHOW that this church has not been idle.
inc most OF our accessions have been from
the outside world, so that, taking the idea of
my text, we have not been building on other
peoples foundations
In laying out the Plan of his missionary
tour Paul sought out towns and cities which
mad ros yet been preached to. He goes to
Corlnth, city mentioned for splendor and
vi e. and Jerusalem, where the priesthood
and the Sanhe1rim were ready to leap with
both feet upon the Christian religion. He
feels he has especial work to do, and he means
TO do 1T. WHAT was the result. The grand
est life OF use. ulne S that man ever lived.
We molcrn Christian workers arr not apt to
i'm tate Paul. We build on other peoples
Foundations If we erect church we prefer
TO have it filed with families, all OF whom
have been pious Do we gather a Sabbath
school class, we want good boys and girls,
hair conbed, faces washed, manners attract
i've SO church in this day is apt to be
built out of other churches. Some ministers
spend all their time in fishing in other peo-
pies ponds, and they throw the line into that
church pond and jerk out a Methodist. and
throw the line into another church pond and
bring out Presbyterian and there is re-
Dgious row in some neighboring church, and
whole school of FISH swim off from that
pond, and we take them all in with one sweep
of the net. What is gained Absolutely
nothing fer the general cause of Christ. 1t
is only as in an army, when a regiment is
transferred from one divi;io to another,
from the Tennessee to the Potomac.
What strene ethens the army is new recruits.
what have always desired is that while we
are courteous to those coming from other
fiocks, we build our church not out of other
churches, but out of the world lest we build
on another mans foundation The fact is
this is a big word. When, in our schoolboy
days. we learned the diam eter and circumfer-
ence OF this planet we did not learn half. 1t
has a latitude and longitude and diameter
and circumference of want and woe and sin
that no figures can calculate This one spir-
-
all zones, and if | We're called to give its geo.
graphical boundary would say it is bounded
on the north and south and east and west by
the great heart of Gods sympathy and love.
Oh, it is great world. Since q o'clock this
morning 60,s00 persons have been born, and
all these multiplied populations are to be
reached of the Gospel. In England, or
in our eastern American cities, we
are being much crowded, and an acre of
ground is of great value, but out West 800
acres is a small farm, and 10000 acIeS is no
unusual possession. But there is vast spir-
itual field here and everywhere unoccupied,
plenty of room for more, not building on
another mans foundation.
We need, as churches, to stop bombarding
the old ironclad sinners that have been proof
against thirty years of Christian assault
Alas for that church which lacks the spirit of
evangelism, spending enough on one chande-
lier to light 500 souls to glory, and in one
carved pillar enough to have made thousand
men ''pilars in the house of our God for
eyer,n and doing less good than many log
cabin meeting house, with tallow candles
stuck in wooden sockets, and minister who
has never seen college or known the differ
ence between Greek and Choctaw. We
need as churches to get into sympathy
with the great outside world, and let them
know that none are so broken hearted or
hardly bestea1 that will not be welcomed.
"Nor' says some fastidious Christian, II
don't like to be crowded in church Don't
put any one in my pew My brother, what
will you do in heaven. When a great null
titude that no man can number assemblies
they will put fifty in your pew. What are
the select few to-day assembled in the Chris
tian churches compared to the mightier mill
ions outside Of them, eight hundred thousand
in Brooklyn, but less than one hundred
thousand in the churches, Many of the
churches are like a hospit ii that should adver-
tise that its patients must have nothing
worse than toothache or "run-rounds, but no
broken heads no crushel ankles, no fractured
thighs. Give us for treatment moderate sin
ners, velvet coated sinners and sinners with
a gloss on. IL is as though man had a
farm of three thousand acres and put all his
work on one acre. He may raise never SO
large ears of corn, never SO big heads of wheat,
be would remain poor. The church of God has
bestowed its chief care on one acre, and has
IL
inclosure: but the field is the world That
means North and South America, Europe,
Asia and Africa and all the islands of the
sea. IL is as though after great battle there
were left 5000 wounded and dying on the
field, and three surgeons gave all their time
to three patients under their charge. The
Major General comes in and says TO the doc
tors: Come out here and look at the nearly
5000 dying for lack Of surgical attendance"
mo say the three doctors, standing there
tanning IN ir patients, I'VE have three inn
portant cases here, and we are attending to
them, and when we are not positively busy
with their wounds. il takes all our time
70 keep the flies off. " In this awful bat
tie of sin and sorrow, where millions have
fallen on millions. do not let us spend all our
time in taking care of few people, and when
the command comes: "Go into the world, y
| say practically, mo. | cannot go; have here
a few choice cases, and am busy keeping of
the nies.- There are multitudes to-day who
have never had any Christian worker look
them in the eye, and with earnestness in the
accentuation, say: "Comsin or they would
long ago hdye been in the kingdom. My
friends, religion is either a sham or tremen..
dous reality. If IL be a shaun, let us disband
our churches and Christian association ii
il bo reality, then great populations are on
the way TO the bar OF God untitled for the
ordeal and what are we doingf
In order 70 reach tho multitude OF out